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Freedom is not everything, that’s what I say. Man, in addition to freedom, needs destiny: even a little bit, even if only in small doses. Have you ever wondered, dear sir, what we would do in a world where everything was planned and regulated; where, finally, No happened never nothing?
How beautiful is the word occur! What had not been planned happens, what escapes any of our forecasts. Have you noticed that men like occurrences? Well, could you tell me what it is? an occurrence if not a thought that comes without warning, an idea not programmedWhy does he sneak into the conversation without anyone knowing where he came from or where he is going, like the Spirit? An occurrence, if it is worth putting it that way, is not a thought thought, but a thought that has occurred, and precisely therein lies its attraction, its irresistible interest. I’ll give you an example of what I mean.
Once I told my niece a well-known children’s story. The girl was intrigued and she was sweating with fear when the Witch tells Snow White: “Eat that apple!”. I don’t want to deceive you, but my niece was shaking from head to toe, which I didn’t like at all; So I decided to introduce a comic element into the story. “And when Snow White heard what the witch was saying, she asked: “Is it an order?” The Witch stared at him, scratched her head, and said, “No, the order is six.”
My niece, bursting into laughter, stopped shaking and I was very happy. But don’t think that I had thought of that ending: it’s just that, to save the situation, I had no choice but to improvise. But let’s get on with our speech, dear sir.
And isn’t this also why we prefer a lively conversation – where anything can happen– to a television program in which everything has been programmed and measureda? There are no jokes on television, sir: for there to be, there should also be a bit of spontaneity, something that, of course, there is not and never will be.
And now allow me a brief philological, linguistic, or whatever you want to call it digression. In Italian, event It is said that accadimentword derived from the verb cadereWhat does it mean fall. An event is something that falls, that falls on us, that is, something that has not depended on us but that in some way puts itself in front of us so that we fight with it -as Jacob did with the angel- or simply do it to a side.
I’ll say it in other words: what we had planned happens, but the unforeseen happens. If you don’t find the comparison inconsiderate, I would say that events are like the clothes fate wears to leave home.
And now, could you tell me, dear sir, what are the most boring days of all? Are they not, perhaps, those who give us only what we expected from them, but nothing more? Boredom is born from the absence of the unexpected. There where everything is reduced to being an exact replica of what it has to be, there boredom is born. Get up, go to the office or factory, take a break, go back to work, finish the day, go home, go to bed and start the same operation again tomorrow. The days in which everything happens as it had been registered in our agenda are the most insipid of all. Never a novelty, an event that alters the order of things: days always the same as themselves; days, so to speak, soulless.
I insist: hehe men need destiny as much as freedom. Reflect on what you used to say to Jean Guitton his dear wife: «If you were looking for me, you would never have found me”. And you, couldn’t you say the same? If you had sought out those beings who are so important to you today, do you think you would have been successful in your attempt, dear sir? For my part, I must tell him that what he expected never came, and that what did come was always what he did not expect. Out of honesty – and also out of frankness – I must tell you that it was better this way.
I have written here, on a cardboard card, a thought of the Argentine poet Simon Kargieman. It’s been several months since I carried it in my wallet like a little treasure. Let me read it to you. Wait, wait… Here it is!: “Fate shakes my hand every day. I don’t believe in him too much but, just in case, I don’t refuse to be close to him. It is not going to happen that I abandon myself and, realizing it, look for it and not find it. And what would happen then? Well, very simple, that I would be left alone with my loneliness, with no more company than absence and a desolate future. That’s why, even if I don’t believe in him too much, I pay attention to him every day so that he treats me well and to see him again tomorrow, and so on every day until he realizes it and then, well, then I’ll accept what fate has ».
Aren’t these words beautiful, dear sir? yesIf fate were to ignore us, even for a moment, we would be left to our own freedom, which would be disastrous. Because keep in mind, my lord, that it is destiny that brings beings into our lives. We do not look for them, but they appear, they fall: they are always an event. Destiny is like the waves that push the bottle that floated in the sea to entrust it to the beach. Then the beach receives it and is happy with the message that was hidden in the bottle. And all thanks to the waves, dear sir, that is, to what does not depend on us!
What depends on us is good to do; and what does not depend on us is good to receive. That makes us men, but this, very often, makes us happy.
Well, that’s what I say, dear sir. And now goodbye, it’s getting late.
Also read: Juan’s story | Column of Juan Jesus Priego